


you lift my heart (when the rest of me is down)

by dormant_bender



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Alternate Universe, Angst and Feels, Ba Sing Se, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hero Complex, Hurt/Comfort, Katara (Avatar)-centric, No Spoilers, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Post-Canon, Post-War, Rebuilding, Romance, Short One Shot, Sorry Not Sorry, To Be Edited, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:22:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28782639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dormant_bender/pseuds/dormant_bender
Summary: Some things never change, and Aang feeling like he has to save (and rebuild the world) is one of them.Thankfully for Aang, he has Katara by his side to remind him that he isn't alone.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	you lift my heart (when the rest of me is down)

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't written a fanfic worthy of posting in forever, so please let me know what you think, yeah? :3 x

  
  
  
  


Candles flicker faintly within the brisk room, the trembling embers decorating the walls in various shadows. It smells faintly of the jasmine tea that had been brewing earlier that evening, courtesy of Iroh and his blooming business. In fact, the neglected tea pot lays flat upon a quaint table in the corner of the room, void of heat and forgotten.

  


Katara had gone to sleep that night under the guise that her lover, and future husband, would be following soon after. He had the habit of frequenting late hours of the night and would more often than not wake up with dark purple crescents beneath his eyes. Those grays possessed a semblance of the bright and cheery naivety of youth, but not as of yet.

  


It had been five years since the end of the one-hundred year war, yet she still thinks she can see remnants of fire and fear in his eyes. The brunette stirs beneath the thick fur blanket she was graciously tucked in, her blue eyes fluttering to the sight of Aang hunched over and looking as defeated as ever.

  


If he notices the shift, he doesn't react to it and instead focuses on numerous scrolls splayed across the blanket. Some of the scrolls are rolled and hanging off the side of the bed, while the others are stretched just enough to read the inky text scrawled across. She reaches a warm hand toward the young man, startling him out of his daze.

  


"Sorry, Katara." Aang does that thing, the thing where he half-smiles and scratches the back of his head (he had yet to cut his hair after an extended stay in Ba Sing Se), fingers pausing to toy with the wispy hairs at the nape of his neck. "A-are the lights bothering you, I can-" He makes to release a blow of air toward the melting wax, but is halted by a soft snort.

  


"No, no the lights aren't bothering me . . . " Katara trails off and stretches her aching limbs, toes nearly reaching the edge of the bed, before righting herself into a seated position. Her eyes catch the light glinting off the scar on the center of his back and she winces inwardly; the memories of the war weren't just in her hindsight, they lived on through the scars they had accumulated. "What are you doing, Aang?"

  


The raven twines a short lock of hair around his finger, lips turning down into a frown. "Nothing, it's just-" Katara narrows her gaze playfully, arms crossing over her chest. This earns a breathless chuckle from the man, eyes abandoning the mess of scrolls to overlook her face. "Okay, fine. It's something, clearly. But nothing for you to worry about, Katara." 

  


Katara hums in response. She snatches up one of the scrolls before Aang can whoosh them away, gathering one into her hands and eyes scanning the page slowly. The contents consisted of plans to build onto Ba Sing Se and to extend the city to house more refuges that had been displaced during the war. Despite years passing, there is still a drawn out processing of rebuilding and rehoming those who had previously everything.

  


As the Avatar, it was his job to help rebuild the nation and strengthen the broken ties between each individual group. Classes had been conducted to educate each nation about resources and other positives regarding the Fire Nation, especially since it was understood that some were still hesitant of trusting the fire benders. One-hundred years of war and destruction would do that to someone.

  


Thin fingers tuck her long locks behind her ears, peering at the wordy scroll until she reached the bottom. "Aang . . . " she starts and he almost immediately averts his gaze to the side. "Don't tell me you're still trying to do all of this on your own?"

  


"Don't-"

  


"-We started the council to help with all of this, you've done your part and now you have to let all of us do some of the work-"

  


"You don't understand." His voice had deepened over the span of a few years, something that reverberates within her chest when he speaks. He bows his head in silence for a beat. "I get it, I saved the world, I took the Firelord's bending, but this is still my job, it's my destiny to make things right and I spent one-hundred years not doing any of that until now." 

  


Katara is taken aback for a moment. Her lips twist into a frown that mirrors his own. His gangly legs are pulled into his chest, and his chin rests upon his knees. He wraps his arms around himself securely as he scowls across the room at a map of each nation, equipped with pegs noting what still had to be done for the reconstruction effort. Blue eyes follow his gaze and she releases an exasperated sigh, leaning into him and resting her head upon his broad shoulder.

  


"You already know what I'm going to say, don't you, Aang?" She nudges the tip of her nose into his cool skin. Aang snorts humorlessly, though he does crack a small hint of that boyish smile she enjoys. "You and I are a team, now more than ever. You are not alone, you will never be alone, and I won't let you take this on all by yourself. Not when you don't have to."

  


Her fingers glide up and down the cool skin of his spine, pausing at the marred scar at his back upon each pass. Her thumb presses against the marred skin for a moment, kneading the skin that still utters phantom pains on occasion. A breathy sigh emanates from the raven, arching into the comforting touch of her fingers.

  


When he moves even the slightest bit, the marred skin scrunches this way and that, thick and jagged lines seeming to crawl along his back. There were times where he would work diligently throughout the day, maintaining a sense of complete and perfect health, only to return to their quarters in Ba Sing Se hunched over and prodding at his back.

  


Katara would soothe the skin with her healing water on the days that his back pain were more severe than usual. It was interesting how something years ago could still affect him now to this day, causing him the aches and pains of his real age versus his outward one. The raven releases a sharp inhale as she releases a knot within his back, uttering a hushed moan at the sensation.

  


"It's just- all those people are looking up to me, they look to me for help and for me to do something." The raven rolls his shoulders into the inviting warmth of her hand, eyes falling to the scrolls once more. "Now more than ever, they need me and it just- it shouldn't take this long for everyone to have a home and to have a safe place to sleep at night while I'm here . . . " Pale fists clench at his sides as he speaks the words, almost as if it physically pains him. 

  


Katara seizes her administrations and proceeds to crawl out of the warm cocoon she was in to plop down crisscrossed in front of him. Her hands rest on either side of his face, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "Look at me, Aang." Cloudy grays don't immediately lock onto her countenance, however, still gazing at the discarded scrolls littered around her. "You are doing all you can and for right now, this is all you can do." Those grays eyes meet hers and hold her in an intense stare- those eyes are rapidly welling with tears, however, and this isn't what she desired to see. 

  


"You are a symbol of hope, even now after the war. Those people know you're doing everything you can to make things better, they understand that rebuilding takes time and effort. You may be the Avatar, but at the end of the day, you are just one man." Katara rubs her thumb along a sly tear that creeps down his cheek. "If anyone deserves a moment to relax, then it's you, Aang. You deserve a safe place, too."

  


Aang releases a pitiful sniffle that strums at Katara's heartstrings. "Spirits, Aang. You haven't rested a full night since the war ended, have you?" It was an accusatory question, but not laced with venom. If anything, she was sympathetic toward him- she still had her nightmares, too, after-all. "You deserve so much more than you think, Aang."

  


The raven leans forward to press his forehead against the latter's. His eyes flutter to a content close as the tears begin to seep from his closed lids. There is a smile upon his face, though, and for that she is grateful. "Thank you, Katara," comes his barely audible whisper.

  


She can feel the droplets of his tears against her skin, soaking into the thin top that she wears, but she doesn't mind in the slightest. She places a hand against the back of his head, combing through his unruly mussed locks. "The only thanks I need is for you to finally get a haircut," quips the brunette with a teasing grin that goes unnoticed by the youth.

  


Aang crinkles his nose at the statement, head shaking ever so slightly. "I've been growing my hair out so long now that I don't even remember how I look without it." He pauses thoughtfully, "my hair hasn't been this long since Ember Island."

  


"Oh no, don't remind me. That play was horrible." 

  


This draws out a hearty chuckle from the raven, his shoulders quaking with the force of it. "They got everything wrong, that's for sure." He smirks smugly at the pleasant turn of events. "You are still marrying me, aren't you . . ?" His eyes are wide and glassy still, that hopeful glint shining thanks to the candles still burning close by. "You aren't running off with Firelord Zuko?"

  


"Oh, ha ha. So funny." Katara rolls her eyes playfully, lips in a stern line as she crosses her arms over her chest. "I like to think I have better taste than Zuko, he's like a brother to me."

  


Aang wipes away the remnants of tears staining his cheeks with a swipe of the arm. He grins broader at this comment, pleased to hear her response. "I'm glad. Let's keep it that way, Katara." He grapples at her hands as he falls back against the plush pillows, tugging her along with him. He feels rather than sees her kick all of the scrolls onto the floor, thudding to the tiling noisily. "You're my forever girl, remember?"

  


Katara lays her head on his bare chest, listening intently to the even thudding of his heart. Her fingers trace the chiseled lines of his abdomen, glancing up at him to nod simply. "I'd like to remember a time where you didn't say that to me, thank you." 

  


He chuckles at that, but remains solemnly silent. And in a sense, she's grateful. She presses a kiss right above where his heart is thrumming the loudest, fingers still splaying across his chest. A song from her childhood enters her mind and she can't resist humming it quietly, a little rhyme her mother used to sing for her and Sokka whenever she couldn't get them to succumb to sleep.

  


She hums the song with a reminiscent smile toying upon her lips, eyes becoming heavy as she continues. She stiffens slightly when an audible snore emanates from above her, the tell-tale sign that Aang had finally succumbed to the evasive lull of slumber. 

  


Blue eyes peer at him from her vantage point and scan his features gingerly. He looked so different yet so familiar to his younger self- it was all evident in the baby fat that still attempts to cling to his high cheekbones, the roundness to his gray eyes and the little pout that stayed upon his lips as he drifted off. There were differences, too, like the sharpness to his jaw and the more pronounced point of his chin.

  


And she thinks to herself before she, too, succumbs, that there were some things that the war could never change and snatch away from her.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> comments? concerns? requests?
> 
> i'm trying to get back into writing and for right now, my muse is definitely Kataang-centered fics :D xx


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